The boy blinked awake after hearing the noise of a rooster in the distance, his small hands clutching the edge of his blanket finding that his room was darker than usual to the point he couldn't see anything. He squinted, waiting for his eyes to adjust, but the shadows stayed.
Was there something wrong? Even though he typically sleeps with the lights off, it had never been this dark before.
He sat up, heart pounding, and called out in a wavering voice, "...Brother?"
No answer.
He tried again, louder. "Mom!?"
Moments later, a faint shimmer cut through the gloom. A beam of light swayed gently along the hallway wall, followed by the muffled thud of footsteps. His brother appeared at the doorway, flashlight in hand, its soft circle of light landing near the boy's face.
"You're already up?" his brother said, voice rough with sleep but calm. "...Of course you are. Same as always."
The boy whimpered slightly.
"Why's it dark?"
"Blackout," his brother said, stepping closer. "Must've happened in the middle of the night. When I woke up, the power was already gone."
"Uh..."
The boy swallowed, his fear ebbing slightly at the sound of his brother's voice. Turning the beam to the window and tilting his head towards, the older boy called out.
"Wanna see outside? It's kinda wild."
The boy hesitated, then nodded. His brother helped him out of bed, and together they padded to the window. His brother pulled back the curtains, and the boy gasped.
"When was the last time it's so dark like this...?" he heard his brother mumble.
The world outside was swallowed in darkness, with neither streetlights nor glowing windows from nearby houses visible. However, above them was something else entirely.
"Whoa..."
The boy let out a soft gasp, for the sky was alive. A vast, shimmering arc stretched across the heavens, a river of stars so dense and bright it looked like spilled milk across black velvet. And slightly behind it, a massive warped swirl of light, another galaxy, tangled with their own in a slow dance—its spiral arms twisting slowly as if reaching for their own.
"Yep. You know? That River of Light is going to crash into its twin, the Great Stellar Island. Started a looooong time ago..." his brother grinned down at him. "Kinda cool, right? If the lights hadn't gone out, we'd never see it like this."
"Eh!?" the boy gasped, recoiling a back a little from the window. "Crash? What's gonna happen when they do? Will everything explode?"
His brother laughed softly and ruffled his hair. "Nah, don't worry. That crash is going to be super slow. Like... imagine two snails racing from one side of the country to the other. By the time they finally bump into each other, we'll all be super old. And way before that happens, we'll be long gone already..."
The boy blinked. "Really?"
"Really. And besides," his brother pointed up, "space is mostly empty. Like, if stars were grains of sand, they'd be miles apart. So even when those two clouds of stars 'crash,' everything inside will just slide right past each other."
"Wow... you know so much about space, brother!"
"Well, I kinda like reading books about this stuff."
The boy stared up, his earlier fear forgotten. The sky was bigger than he'd ever imagined.
YOU ARE READING
Just A Reincarnation Story (Summoning Japan Edition)
Fanfiction"Unacceptable. If there's one thing that a conveniently appearing overpowered entity in this world has shown us, is that we are seen as weak and hopeless. I find that previous life's terms unacceptable. I want a better world. With these hands, I dar...
